Empowered Youth: Will ‘March for Our Lives’ Start A Revolution?

The day has come when the children have started to stand up for their own rights. Today we got to witness them stand together across the globe in unity against the #NRA and in the name of those students who have lost their lives to gun violence in school shootings.

The Revolution Has Come

(ABC News) A student survivor of the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, who is helping to lead the March for Our Lives for gun control said today’s protests in Washington, D.C., and around the country “are going to start a revolution.”

“We are sick and tired of the inaction here in Washington and around the country” by politicians who are “owned by the NRA,” David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, said on “Good Morning America” this morning. “Today we are going to start a revolution.”

“We will change America with or without these politicians,” continued Hogg, who lost 17 classmates and teachers in the mass shooting on Feb. 14.

Organizers of March for Our Lives expect hundreds of thousands of people to converge on Washington, D.C., for the main event there, with hundreds of other protests also planned today around the country and the world.

Hogg was asked about Parkland survivors’ hopeful slogan of #NeverAgain after the massacre at their school considering there was another school shooting this week in Maryland high school in which one female student died and the male gunman was killed by a school-resource officer.

The Florida teen suggested the problem of gun violence has an array of causes in addition to the need for more firearms restrictions.

“It’s due to a … mental health care problem, a gun control problem, and an American problem,” he said.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Hogg has been a harsh critic of the National Rifle Association. The NRA is “just disgusting,” hen told ABC News’ “This Week” last month. “They act like they don’t still own these politicians, but they do.” Since the Parkland school shooting, Hogg and classmates, including Cameron Kasky, Emma Gonzalez, Alex Wind and Jaclyn Corin, have played a leading role in helping to jumpstart a movement for greater restrictions on guns.

A GoFundMe for March for Our Lives raised $3.3 million, and celebrities such as George and Amal Clooney and Oprah Winfrey contributed.